Five ways to cut HVAC energy before you spend a penny on plant

Before anyone specifies a new chiller, it is worth checking what the existing controls are being asked to do. On almost every estate we survey, there is double-digit energy waste locked up in settings nobody has revisited since handover.

The five checks

• Occupancy schedules that match how the building is actually used today
• Heating and cooling setpoints with a real dead band between them
• Optimum start and stop enabled and tuned to the fabric
• Simultaneous heating and cooling designed out at zone level
• Plant sequencing so lead machines rotate and part-load is efficient

None of that needs capital expenditure. It needs someone with access to the supervisor and a week of attention.